'LOVE ME DO'

'Love me do'  - mixed media on wood panel  (20cms x 20cms)

Still on the love theme, I am doing a few pictures for Valentine's Day to sell in the gallery.  With the first, I experimented in combining a large textile element with a collaged background, mounted onto a wooden painting panel using the sides as well as the top surface.

Paint was used to merge the elements.

I started by painting the panel and collaging on torn pages, from an old notebook that I was about to throw out, and bits from a napkin. A small heart shaped stamp and some punched out shapes were used to add to the background.

For the textile red/pink heart, I started with a piece of fabric onto which I ironed on some bondaweb.  I then peeled off the backing paper and covered up the area with snippets of fabric and a layer of laminating plastic. This was then ironed from the back and then machined stitched. I then cut the material into a large heart shape. At this stage I liked the colour but it looked a bit too plasticky, so I got out my soldering iron, which I haven't used for ages, and burnt into the top surface, distressing it until I was satisfied with the result.

To merge the two elements together, I used paint and some letters from an old word game.  'Love me do' is, of course, part of the lyrics of a Beatles song of the 60s.  Song lyrics of this era often pop into my head when I work as they are the background of my growing up!